US stocks open lower; Wal-Mart falls after outlook warning

S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 5 points, or 0.24 percent, with 122,128 contracts traded. Germany’s DAX Index slipped 0.2 percent, France’s CAC 40 Index slid 0.3 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.4 percent. Morgan Stanley said the company’s upbeat outlook on some of its businesses “does not change our tactically negative view on the segment and the stock”. But the stability was short-lived as the sell-offs restarted. The CSI300 index.CSI300 of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 6.2 percent at 3,825.41.

The report said housing starts inched up by 0.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.206 million in July from the revised June estimate of 1.204 million.

Concern about China and its demand for commodities such as copper sent prices for raw materials lower.

The S&P 500 index is up 5.38 points, or 0.3 percent.

“All the news out of China recently has done nothing to restore confidence in its financial markets, and the ripple effect can be felt in Europe“, said David Madden, market analyst at IG.

“Bottom line, the nice uptick in single family starts certainly follows the better home builder sentiment we saw from the NAHB as a dearth of inventories is hopefully going to now be met by improved supply”. To halt the fall, the government imposed a ban on major shareholders from selling any of their shares.

However, global macro concerns, especially worries regarding China’s slowing growth, and as inflation remains below the 2 percent growth that the Fed would like to see, could force them to wait until December to raise rates.

Currently, the major averages are posting slim losses on the day.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Tuesday.

Freeport McMoRan dropped 3.1 percent as copper prices tumbled. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index sank 1.4 percent to 23,474.97 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.2 percent to 5,303.10.

OIL: The benchmark U.S. crude fell 7 cents at $41.80 per barrel on electronic trading on New York Mercantile Exchange.

BONDS & CURRENCIES: U.S. government bonds fell, nudging the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 2.19 percent, roughly its level at the end of last week.

In oil trading, U.S. crude fell 63 cents to close at $41.87 on the contraction in Japan, the world’s third-largest oil consumer.

In the Dow, slides in shares of Wal-Mart and those of Cisco, down 3.6 percent and 2.1 percent respectively, outweighed gains in shares of Home Depot and those of UnitedHealth, last up 2.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.